MSI Press Blog

Introduction  Various scholarly explanations have been set forth regarding why Islamic reform, a movement preoccupied with reviving Islamic civilization and resisting Western colonialism through the creation of a Muslim civil society, was superseded, in the mid-twentieth century, by Islamic fundamentalism, a movement preoccupied with creating an ‘Islamic state’ by violence if necessary Such explanations can be classified into two major categories: ‘traditional legacy’, and ‘external dynamics’.  The ‘traditional legacy’ category includes works that explain Islamic fundamentalism as a product of the traditional legacy of Islam, which makes no separation between religion and state and which promotes political violence through the emphasis it places on jihad or morally ordained struggle/resistance.Muslim religious scholars, however, strongly discouraged violent political descent. Regarding the confrontation of government authority, Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 1328) wrote: “What is well known regardi

  Today's book excerpt comes from  An Afternoon's Dictation  by  Steven Greenebaum . PART ONE: THE CALL TO INTERFAITH CHAPTER ONE   In 1999, I’d reached the end of my tether. Over the years, there had been one crushing event after another. The woman I’d intended to spend my life with, who had intended to spend her life with me, had been killed in a senseless traffic accident. My mother, who had lived her life fettered by the chains of patriarchy, had at last broken free and blossomed, recognizing her own self-worth, only to be struck down by cancer after just a few short years of truly enjoying life. And then my father, with whom I’d had major disagreements but whom I loved and honored as my father, had died a humiliating death, plagued by dementia. These were just the tips of the iceberg. I was one angry human. In the privacy of my house, I kept saying, sometimes out loud and sometimes in my mind, “God, you’re there? Really? I want five minutes, and I want some answers.” T

  The Severe Trial During the ninth century, the Abbasid khalifah1 al-Mamun (r. 813-833) set out to convert ahl al-sunnah, or the traditionalists who emphasized the authority of the Qur’an and Prophetic traditions, to a theological doctrine held by the Muc tazilah, or the rationalists who emphasized the authority of reason and philosophical principles. Traditionalist scholars were forced to recant their belief in the non-created nature of the Qur’an in favor of the rationalist doctrine which held that the Qur’an was a creation of God. Those who refused were tortured and, at times, executed. In 848, fifteen years after the beginning of the government sponsored inquisition, termed al-Mihnah, or the Severe Trial, by Muslim historians, al-Mutawakkil (r. 847-861) ordered the end of all government sponsored attempts to enforce the rationalist doctrine. Al-Mutawakkil’s decision reflected his awareness that the inquisition had simply not succeeded and that its continuation might well

  Today is the feast day of St. John the Baptist, and Sula, Parish Cat at Old Mission, has a book that is perfect for the day. The cover of Sains I Know shows the statue of St. John the Baptist in Sula's hometown of San Juan Bautista (St. John the Baptist). Here is Sula's description of SJB. St. John the Baptist Early first Century A.D. The town of San Juan Bautista (St. John the Baptist), where our Mission is located, was founded on the feast day of St. John the Baptist, June 24 (the reason that most of my books have been released on June 24), and named after him. Our Mission was founded on that day, too. In the beginning, the two were very connected. St. John the Baptist is one of the best-known saints, even to non-Catholics. Even so, his exact birth dates are not known. He was born six months before Jesus, whose coming he foreshadowed, and was murdered in the last year of Jesus’s ministry, so we do know the approximate dates—the first 30 or so years of the first century. He

  What is a book jewel? A sometimes-overlooked book with remarkable insight and potential significance. Each month, we share near-daily, or as often as possible, reviews of the monthly book jewel - short, succinct reviews that can be read in 1-2 minutes with links to the reviewer by reviewers whose words are worthy of being heard and whose opinions are worthy of being considered. Sometimes a couple of minutes contains more impressive thought than ten times that many. We will let you decide that. This month's book jewel is  A Theology for the Rest of Us  by Arthur Yavelberg. Description: If God exists and is good, why is there evil? Avoiding such questions underlies the spiritual emptiness and anxiety in today's world. A Theology for the Rest of Us explores how to approach the divine through Eastern and Western religious traditions without dogma, challenging readers to "be you lamps unto yourselves." In a time of internecine wars and all kinds of abuse of authority and

  We only find out these things by chance. Either someone tells us, or we stumble across them on the Internet. In any case, it is always pleasant to learn that we have received positive notice. That is important for our authors. So, this week, we were pleased to learn that MSI Press has been rated as #16 among publishers of religious works. See more information about the rating HERE . We publish works based on Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, and general spirituality. For more detail about our religious and spiritual books, click HERE .

  (photo by Lisa Lavignano) THE ALTAR The altar is the most important part of the church. The altar is where the priest celebrates the Mass, offering the Sacrifice (body and blood of Christ). Without an altar, there cannot be a Mass.  What happens at the altar is mysterious and highly spiritual. The priest consecrates the host (bread) and the wine, blessing it by prayer and asking the Holy Spirit to descend upon it to change it into the body and body of Christ. This change is called transubstantion.  Altars have been used in worshipping God for a very long time. At first, they had to be made of stone, but that is not the case today. If you read the Old Testament, you will read that God’s chosen people, the Jews, in the old days, San Juan Bautista Mission long before the time of Jesus, used altars to offer to God sacrifices like lambs, or, yikes!, (almost) Isaac, Abraham’s son. That’s a story of incredible trust, the kind of trust that helped Abraham to be the progenitor (t

What is a book jewel? A sometimes-overlooked book with remarkable insight and potential significance. Each month, we share near-daily, or as often as possible, reviews of the monthly book jewel - short, succinct reviews that can be read in 1-2 minutes with links to the reviewer by reviewers whose words are worthy of being heard and whose opinions are worthy of being considered. Sometimes a couple of minutes contains more impressive thought than ten times that many. We will let you decide that. This month's book jewel is  A Theology for the Rest of Us  by Arthur Yavelberg. Description: If God exists and is good, why is there evil? Avoiding such questions underlies the spiritual emptiness and anxiety in today's world. A Theology for the Rest of Us explores how to approach the divine through Eastern and Western religious traditions without dogma, challenging readers to "be you lamps unto yourselves." In a time of internecine wars and all kinds of abuse of authority and t

  MSI Press has added to its collection of affiliated books a self-published book by MSI Press author, Dr. Amir Sabzevary: An Interpretative Introduction to Western Religion s: This book is an antidote to contemporary philosophical, religious-spiritual markets and trappings. The book details the physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual subtleties and complexities that exist and are experienced on the quest towards wisdom: the qualities that teachers of wisdom must possess, what is expected from seekers after truth, the teacher-student relationship, the importance of love, the stages of spiritual evolution, and the nature of a spiritual community. This book offers a rare and uncommon glimpse into the inner or esoteric dimensions of the three great Western religious traditions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Using everyday language and examples, the book offers understandable accounts of some of the core and complex practices and teachings of these great traditions. Those inte

We like to think that MSI Press is a family, but sometimes, we have families among our authors. One such family is the Imady family from Damascus, Syria. Elaine Imady, the mother, met her sweetheart in New York and moved with him to his home country of Syria, where she raised three bicultural children. Her love story is told in Road to Damascus . Read more about Elaine and her book HERE .     Muna Imady, the daughter, wrote a beloved and popular book,  Syrian Folktales . Not long after, she died following heart surgery, leaving a mostly finished, unpublished book, Damascus amid the War, due out in August 2020. Elaine and daughter #32, Sausan, put the finishing touches on the book, including a touching memorial to Muna that had been published in the  New York Times . Read more about Muna, her life, and her books  HERE . Dr. Omar Imady, the son, is a professor of political science who has written a number of fiction and non-fiction books about Syria, Middle Ea